“Eating while it’s hot” may really cause cancer, so I advise you to stop immediately!

Freshly brewed hot tea, freshly cooked hot soup

The hot pot is bubbling with hot meat...

"Try it while it's hot" is a habit of many people

Many people can't resist hot food.

But in fact

Every bite of hot food

It will cause damage to the esophagus and stomach.

You don't know anything about it -

Excessive heat stimulation is one of the risk factors for esophageal cancer

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. According to global cancer statistics released by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in 2020, the number of new cases of esophageal cancer worldwide reached 604,000, and the number of deaths reached 544,000. Among them, more than half of the new cases (53.7%) and deaths (55.3%) were in China. Compared with other human organs, the esophagus and stomach in the digestive tract are like "slow guys." Sometimes, they are burned and you may not even notice it. For example, when eating, if you accidentally burn your mouth, many people will subconsciously swallow it quickly, thinking that it will not be hot. But in fact, the esophagus is not as sensitive to temperature as the mouth and skin, so even if it is burned, it is often not obvious.

The wall of the human esophagus is made of mucous membrane, which is very delicate and can only withstand temperatures of 50-60°C. If the temperature exceeds this, the mucous membrane of the esophagus will be burned. The temperature of overscalded food is about 70-80°C, especially the temperature of freshly brewed tea, which can reach 80-90°C. Such a temperature will burn the wall of the esophagus.

In order to repair these injuries in time, the epithelial cells of the esophageal mucosa must accelerate their proliferation. If you often eat hot food, the mucosal damage has not been repaired and is burned again, which can form superficial ulcers. Repeated burns and repairs will cause changes in the quality of the mucosa, causing inflammation and necrosis, and if this continues for a long time, it may lead to cancer.

A paper published in The Lancet in 2016 stated that drinking hot drinks above 65°C may increase the risk of esophageal cancer. Later, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified hot drinks above 65°C as Class 2A carcinogens in the list of carcinogens published on October 27, 2017. This means that they are likely to be carcinogenic to humans. You should know that this classification is one level higher than Class 2B carcinogens such as dichlorvos, chloroform, and aflatoxin M1.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(16)30239-X

In June 2022, a study led by the International Agency for Research on Cancer found that in East Africa, where esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is also highly prevalent, a case-control analysis of risk factors found that people who generally eat hot food and eat quickly have a nearly fourfold increased risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma compared to those who eat food at a moderate temperature and chew slowly. The results of the study were published in the British Journal of Cancer.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-022-01890-8

The tolerance temperature of the oral mucosa is 60-65℃. The first thing that food that is too hot touches is the oral mucosa. High temperature may cause congestion and edema of the oral mucosa, and even cause ulcers. Studies have shown that the probability of people with high inlet temperature suffering from oral ulcers is 140.399 times that of people with low inlet temperature. Eating hot food may destroy the connection between the epithelial cells of the oral mucosa. At this time, toxic substances can easily enter the oral mucosa and cause oral damage. In more serious cases, it can directly cause burns, followed by the formation of traumatic ulcers.

Eating hot foods for a long time will repeatedly stimulate the oral mucosa and may cause oral leukoplakia, a precancerous lesion that may develop into cancer.

Hot food or drinks can cause great damage to the stomach. The heat-resistant temperature of the gastric mucosa is generally 40°C. The stomach constantly secretes digestive juices. When the gastric mucosa is damaged, it is more susceptible to corrosion by digestive juices. Long-term and repeated damage to the gastric mucosa can easily cause gastric ulcers, gastritis, stomach pain, and even gastric cancer.

So, how can we avoid this kind of cancer caused by "burning"?

It's very simple, just change your eating habits! Before eating hot pot or drinking hot soup, you might as well let it cool for a while and eat it when the temperature is not so high. This can protect your oral mucosa and esophageal mucosa, and you can enjoy the pleasure brought by delicious food.

Eating cooler food is actually good. Many people worry that eating cold food will cause stomachache, because they have always believed that eating hot food is good for the stomach, but this is a misunderstanding. From a physiological level, the stomach does not react so much to cold food. From the perspective of stomach physiology, eating food after it has cooled down is actually a kind of protection for the digestive tract and stomach. In fact, as long as the temperature is moderate, there will generally be no stomach discomfort or stomach upset.

Similarly, we should also pay attention to the temperature when drinking water. It is best to drink warm water on a daily basis, with a water temperature of 18-45 degrees Celsius. Even in winter, the water you drink should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius.

Edit: April